An investigation committee to ensure justice in the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) killings will be formed within the next five working days, said Home Affairs Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury on Tuesday.  This committee will include retired judges, civil service, armed forces, and police personnel, he said. He made the announcement at a special press briefing held at the home ministry's conference room, emphasizing the interim government’s commitment to justice and good governance.  Retired army officers demand exemplary punishment for perpetrators of BDR massacre “The government is determined to re-investigate and ensure justice in the BDR killings. Since its formation, the interim government has been working toward this goal,” said the adviser.  He reiterated his consistent stance on the matter, saying, “I have been vocal about re-investigating the BDR killings from the very beginning, both as a former army member and as a concerned citizen.”  BDR families demand renaming of BGB, justice for mutiny victims Addressing the timeline for submitting the investigation report, he said, “We will first collect names for the committee. This process may take some time, as not everyone is willing to join such committees. After finalizing the members, we will consult with them to determine the scope and timeline for the report.”  However, the exact number of members is yet to be finalized, though it is likely to be five, seven or nine, with more representation from the armed forces, he added.  On whether the committee would be headed by a judge or another official, the adviser said that the committee will be led by the most senior member. BDR carnage to be reinvestigated: Home Adviser He added that the format—whether it will be a committee or a commission—would be decided based on discussions after its formation.  When asked whether there is any confusion with the law ministry, the Home Affairs Adviser said, "No, there is no confusion with the law ministry. However, we will sit with the law adviser and take their opinions."  

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday said that those who were involved in the killings of hundreds of Bangladesh Air Force members through illegal court martial in 1977 are getting punishment for their crimes. Punishment is also being meted out to the perpetrators of arson violence and terrorism carried out in the name of movement launched by BNP and Jamaat during 2013-15, she said. “Those who were involved in injustice got punishment, getting punishment and will get punishment,” she said at an event at her official residence Ganobhavan. The prime minister was talking to the family members of Bangladesh Air Force personnel who had been sentenced to death through illegal court martial in 1977 during the regime of then military ruler General Ziaur Rahman. Also Read: 2002 attack on Hasina's motorcade: 4 get life imprisonment, 44 others 7 years’ jail Victims and relatives of arson terrorism by BNP-Jamaat nexus in 2013, 2014 and 2015 were also present there. Hasina said that she is empathetic to the family members of the victims as she and her younger sister lost father, mother, brothers, sister-in-laws and other family members in a day on August 15 in 1975 when Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated. She said Bangabandhu endured life-long sufferings for Bangladesh and its people. “My only aim is to ensure that people of this country remain in good shape,” she said. She regretted that arson terrorism and fire incidents at market places are taking place causing immense miseries to the innocent people at a time the country is moving towards economic prosperity. “Those who are doing this are incurring hatred of the whole nation. I think that Allah will also not tolerate this,” she said. She said that BNP-Jamaat’s activities had been as barbaric as was done by Pakistani military.  “Ziaur Rahman used to write the verdict of capital punishment while smiling,” she said. She said that after that Zia’s wife and then their sons resorted to arson terrorism as they do not want any good for the country and its people. She mentioned that she can understand the pain of the family members and relatives of the victims. “I am always beside you, I share your pain,” she said. Nurunnahar Begum, wife of victim Sargent Delwar Hossain, and Maksuda Parvin, daughter of Sargent Morshedul Alam, also spoke at the programme. A heart-rending situation prevailed while the relatives spoke. A visibly moved PM consoled them with motherly affection. Victim of arson terrorism Sub Inspector Moqbul Hossain and Mohammad Salauddin Bhuiyan expressed their feelings in the programme. Two separate documentaries on these subjects were also screened at the programme. The prime minister presented Eid gifts to the victims and relatives.    

A South Korean court on Tuesday ordered the government to pay 30 million won ($24,000) to a Vietnamese woman who survived a gunshot wound but lost several relatives when South Korean marines rampaged through her village during the Vietnam War in 1968. In awarding the compensation to 62-year-old Nguyen Thi Thanh, the Seoul Central District Court dismissed the government’s argument that it was unclear whether South Korean troops were responsible for the slaughter in the village of Phong Nhi. The court also rejected the government’s argument that civilian killings were unavoidable as the Korean troops were dealing with Viet Cong guerrillas who often blended with locals, according to Thanh's lawyer, Lim Jae-sung. The ruling marks the first time a South Korean court found the country’s government responsible for mass killings of Vietnamese civilians during the war, and could potentially open the way for similar lawsuits. Then ruled by anti-communist military leaders, South Korea sent more than 320,000 troops to Vietnam, the largest foreign contingent fighting alongside U.S. troops. South Korea’s Justice Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a query whether the government will appeal. According to U.S. military documents and survivors, more than 70 people were killed and around 20 others injured after South Korean marines allegedly fired at unarmed civilians during search operations at Phong Nhi and the nearby village of Phong Nhut in February 1968. Thanh, then 7 years old, was treated for gunshot wounds in her stomach while five of her family members died, including her mother, sister and brother. She filed the lawsuit against the South Korean government in 2020 and testified at the Seoul court last August. The trial also included the testimonies of other Vietnamese villagers and South Korean war veteran Ryu Jin-seong, a member of the marine unit linked to the attacks in Phong Nhi and Phong Nhut. He provided a first-hand account of how the Korean soldiers shot at unarmed civilians, many of them children and women. Thanh, who awaited the ruling in Vietnam, said she was “overjoyed” by her court win. “I think that the souls (of those who died in Phong Nhi) were always with me and supported me,” she said in a video message translated by her legal team. “I am overjoyed because I think that the souls can now rest easy.” The South Korean government had argued there was no conclusive evidence that South Korean troops were responsible for the killings, even suggesting that the aggressors may have been Viet Cong fighters disguised in Korean uniforms and attempting psychological warfare. The government also insisted that even if Korean soldiers were involved, their aggressive response was understandable when they were facing constant threats from Viet Cong guerrillas, who often hid themselves among locals and actively recruited young women.

Two members of the international humanitarian group Save the Children were missing Saturday after Myanmar government troops rounded up villagers, some believed to be women and children, fatally shot more than 30 and burned the bodies, according to a witness and other reports. Purported photos of the aftermath of the Christmas Eve massacre in eastern Mo So village, just outside Hpruso township in Kayah state where refugees were sheltering from an army offensive, spread on social media in the country, fueling outrage against the military that took power in February. READ: Tortured to death: Myanmar mass killings revealed The accounts could not be independently verified. The photos showed the charred bodies of over 30 people in three burned-out vehicles. A villager who said he went to the scene told The Associated Press that the victims had fled the fighting between armed resistance groups and Myanmar’s army near Koi Ngan village, which is just beside Mo So, on Friday. He said they were killed after they were arrested by troops while heading to refugee camps in the western part of the township. Save the Children said that two of its staff who were traveling home for the holidays after conducting humanitarian response work in a nearby community were “caught up in the incident and remain missing." “We have confirmation that their private vehicle was attacked and burned out,” the group added in a statement. “The military reportedly forced people from their cars, arrested some, killed others and burned their bodies.” The government has not commented on the allegations, but a report in the state-run Myanma Alinn daily newspaper on Saturday said that the fighting near Mo So broke out on Friday when members of ethnic guerrilla forces, known as the Karenni National Progressive Party, and those opposed to the military drove in “suspicious” vehicles and attacked security forces after refusing to stop. The newspaper report said they included new members who were going to attend training to fight the army, and that the seven vehicles they were traveling in were destroyed in a fire. It gave no further details about the killings. READ: Myanmar public urges gas sanctions to stop military funding The witness who spoke to the AP said the remains were burned beyond recognition, and children's and women's clothes were found together with medical supplies and food. “The bodies were tied with ropes before being set on fire,” said the witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety. He did not see the moment they were killed, but said he believed some of them were Mo So villagers who reportedly got arrested by troops on Friday. He denied that those captured were members of locally organized militia groups. Myanmar's independent media reported on Friday that 10 Mo So villagers including children were arrested by the army and four members of the local paramilitary Border Guard Forces who went to negotiate for their release were reportedly tied up and shot in the head by the military. The witness said the villagers and anti-government militia groups left the bodies as military troops arrived near Mo So while the bodies were being prepared for cremation. The fighting was still intense near the village. “It’s a heinous crime and the worst incident during Christmas. We strongly condemn that massacre as a crime against humanity,” said Banyar Khun Aung, director of the Karenni Human Rights Group. Earlier this month, government troops were also accused of rounding up villagers, some believed to be children, tying them up and slaughtering them. An opposition leader, Dr. Sasa, who uses only one name, said the civilians were burned alive. A video of the aftermath of the Dec. 7 assault — apparently retaliation for an attack on a military convoy — showed the charred bodies of 11 people lying in a circle amid what appeared to be the remains of a hut. Fighting meanwhile resumed Saturday in a neighboring state on the border with Thailand, where thousands of people have fled to seek shelter. Local officials said Myanmar’s military unleashed airstrikes and heavy artillery on Lay Kay Kaw, a small town controlled by ethnic Karen guerrillas, since Friday. The military’s action prompted multiple Western governments including the U.S. Embassy to issue a joint statement condemning “serious human rights violations committed by the military regime across the country." “We call on the regime to immediately cease its indiscriminate attacks in Karen state and throughout the country, and to ensure the safety of all civilians in line with international law,” the joint statement said.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said the masterminds behind the August 15 massacre will also be gradually exposed in the near future. “It was very essential to try the killers first. We’ve done it. And it’ll also come out eventually one day who had been behind the killings. And that day is not far,” she said. The prime minister was addressing a memorial meeting arranged by Bangladesh Awami League (AL) marking the National Mourning Day and 46th martyrdom anniversary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Sheikh Hasina, also the AL President, presided over the virtual function joining it from her official residence Ganobhaban, while other participants were connected from AL central office in the city’s Bangabandhu Avenue. She said all of those who took part in the brutal assassination and who stood beside them (killers) or who prepared the ground for it are equally guilty. READ: Mourning Day: PM pays homage to Bangabandhu About the demand for a commission to find out the masterminds of the cruellest mayhem, Sheikh Hasina said things would be very clear to all from the newspapers of those days.  “We will not need to go far to find out them, if we see who criticised (the rule of Bangabandhu), who spoke (against it) and who prepared the ground. You’ve asked for formation of a commission. It is very fine. But if you read the then newspapers, many things would be very clear to all,” she said. Sheikh Hasina, also the eldest daughter of Bangabandhu, said the father of the nation returned home on January 10, 1972, and the conspiracy against him started the same year, not giving him time to rebuild the war-ravaged country. It takes many years to rebuild a war-ravaged country, but criticism started against him just in one year, she said. The PM said the killings were carried out as Bangabandhu could not be detached from the mass people by spreading propaganda against him. “Who had written those? Whom they wanted to satisfy? Who prepared the grounds of the killings?” she said. August 15 carnage can be comparable only with Karbala: Describing the August 15 incident as the most heinous and cruel killing in the history, she said this carnage can be compared only with the Karbala tragedy. Sheikh Hasina said it is usually seen that only the head of the state or the premier of the government is assassinated for the state power.   “Such carnage was carried out in Bangladesh, which can be compared only with Karbala. Women and children had not been killed in Karbara. But women and children were not spared (in the August 15 carnage) in Bangladesh,” she lamented. Noting that the conspirators wanted to exploit and deprive the people of Bangladesh for ever, she said the real revenge of the August 15 carnage would be taken when the people would get a decent life in every front, having food, cloth, shelter, education and health rights as dreamt by the Father of the Nation. She, however, said her government has already done a lot of in ensuring the rights for improving the living standard of the people. “My father had liberated the country. This independence can’t go in vain. It would be a success,” Hasina said adding that the benefit of this success would reach every house even in grassroots area and the people will have improved living standard. At the outset of the event, a one-minute silence was observed in memory of Bangabandhu and martyrs of the August 15 carnage. READ: PM mourns death of AL leader Abdur Rahman AL general secretary Obaidul Quader delivered the welcome speech, while its presidium members Begum Matia Chowdhury, Dr Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, Jahangir Kabir Nanak and Abdur Rahman, joint general secretaries Mahbubul Alam Hanif and AFM Bahauddin Nasim, religious office secretary Advocate Sirajul Mostafa and office secretary Barrister Biplab Barua, among others, spoke at the meeting conducted by its publicity and publication secretary Abdus Sobhan Golap.